This letter to the European Commission calls for its intervention in view of the French authorities’ inability to enforce the EU’s port sanctions, while other Member States are strictly implementing them. To this end, it documents the Shtandart’s stopovers in La Rochelle, its participation in the 2025 Gulf Week and the risk of further stopovers in spring 2026.
Archives de l’étiquette : France
Demande d’intervention de la Commission européenne concernant un manquement à l’exécution des sanctions portuaires en France (Morbihan et Charente-Maritime)
Ce courrier à la Commission européenne appelle à son intervention face à l’impossibilité de faire appliquer les sanctions portuaires de l’Union par les autorités françaises, alors que d’autres États membres les mettent en œuvre strictement. Dans ce but, il documente les escales du Shtandart à La Rochelle, sa participation à la Semaine du Golfe 2025 et le risque de nouvelles escales au printemps 2026.
Position ferme, zéro polémique : le collectif No Shtandart in Europe répond une deuxième fois au solliciteur anonyme
En moins de 24 heures, le collectif No Shtandart in Europe répond pour la deuxième fois au même interlocuteur anonyme utilisant un pseudo. Il ré-insiste sur le fait qu’il s’appuie uniquement sur des éléments publics et vérifiables, applique le droit européen et les sanctions en vigueur, et ignore totalement narratifs alternatifs, interprétations personnelles ou tentatives de polémique.
The ‘Shtandart’ and European sanctions: second formal warning for Kombat-Tour
On 26 November 2025, a second formal warning was issued to the Russian agency Kombat-Tour concerning its planned cruise aboard the frigate Shtandart in Brittany. An article in Le Télégramme points out that the ship remains banned from European ports due to EU sanctions and French and European court rulings. Continuing with this project would expose the Russian agency to serious legal, commercial and geopolitical risks.
Mise en demeure – demande d’arrêté préfectoral d’interdiction d’accès aux ports de Charente-Maritime pour le navire russe « Shtandart »
Mise en demeure et ses pièces jointes, adressées le 13 août 2025 par l’association Iroise Ukraine et le collectif No Shtandart in Europe à M. Brice Blondel, préfet de la Charente-Maritime, concernant le navire russe TS Shtandart, MMSI 518999255, basé dans le port de La Rochelle depuis le 8 juin 2022, en violation de l’article 3 sexies bis du règlement (UE) n° 833/2014. Ce document tient compte des événements récents et des fraudes impliquant le Shtandart survenus en Bretagne nord, à Jersey, en Irlande, en Écosse, en Norvège et au Danemark, où toutes les autorités préfectorales ou nationales ont interdit l’accostage du navire russe.
A rhetorical analysis of the president of the ‘Les Amis des Grands Voiliers — Sail Training Association France’ in relation to the sanctioned Russian ship, ‘Shtandart’.
Dated 3 January 2025, a letter from Michel Balique, president of Les Amis des Grands Voiliers — Sail Training Association France, provides a remarkable summary of the rhetoric used against activists opposing the Russian ship Shtandart’s failure to comply with sanctions over the past three years.
How did « Les Amis des Grands Voiliers – Sail Training Association France » deviate from its mandate and damage its reputation by promoting an illicit circumvention of EU sanctions ?
Michel Balique ridiculed and discredited Les Amis des Grands Voiliers primarily by converting its platform into a pro‑Shtandart lobbying machine, repeatedly dodging substantive legal critique, and replacing it with rhetorical excess and personal invective. The result, according to critics, was to tarnish the association’s founders’ intentions and academic legitimacy, presenting it as complicit in illicit circumvention of EU sanctions.
Alert! Help us to stop the fraud involving the Russian ship « Shtandart » in Belgium!
In the summer of 2025, the Russian propaganda ship Shtandart will offer illegal cruises to various destinations, including France, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Norway, Denmark, Belgium, Spain, and Portugal. It is expected to dock in Ostend on September 1, 2025, during its voyage from Stavanger, Norway, to Saint-Malo, France.
Summer 2025: Russian ship « Shtandart » plans illegal stopovers in ports of France, UK, Ireland, Norway, Denmark, Belgium, Spain & Portugal
For the 2025 summer season, the Shtandart, a Russian propaganda ship under sanctions, has launched its commercial campaign for joining its tour of European ports. This time, it is no longer limited to France, Spain, or even the EU. This illustrates its skipper’s sense of impunity, the confidence he has in his networks of influence and the contempt in which he holds our institutions. This also shows that our countries will only be able to put an end to the fraud that has been going on for more than three years if they follow the Spanish example, i.e. by a concerted ban on their territorial waters.
Why did Michel Balique, president of ‘Friends of tall ships’ association, become collateral damage to the Russian vessel ‘Shtandart’?
Michel Balique, president of the Amis des grands voiliers – Sail Training Association France, is one of the two main French lobbyists for the Russian vessel Shtandart, which became a violation of European regulations on 16 April 2022, the date of application of the 5th round of the European sanctions imposed following the Bucha massacres. This activism on behalf of Russian interests has ruined his digital image, i.e. his reputation, and that of the association he chairs.
The "Shtandart" In Europe 